Is Howard Stern about to leave SiriusXM? Rumors are swirling to that effect, though the sources aren't exactly rock solid. The Sun tabloid, for example, got the latest speculation in play, reporting that the satellite network won't renew the 71-year-old's contract. Some observers—see this analysis—suspect Sirius itself planted the idea with the tabloid in order to gain leverage in contract talks. Regardless, Stern himself is very much embracing the uncertainty with a tongue-in-cheek promo, notes OutKick. "Now we can reveal all the questions will be answered, all the truths will be told by the one man truly on the inside," the narrator intones. "Howard Stern will speak Tuesday, September 2."
The idea that one of the original shock jocks of regular radio might be calling it quits has prompted lots of speculation:
- Marc Maron, who announced recently that he'll be ending his WTF podcast after 16 years, told the The Hollywood Reporter: "Howard Stern mentioned us stopping the show. He said, 'Well, if they're burnt out, I must be dead.' I don't know if he knows the irony in that. There is something about solidifying a legacy when you stop, as opposed to just fading away."
- At GQ, longtime Stern fan Vince Mancini writes that Stern critics accuse him of having lost his edge over the years, but he thinks the criticism is unfair. "Becoming more mainstream—more a part of the media power structure than a critic of it—made Stern arguably less interesting than he once was, but it's also one of those mostly inevitable side effects of success," he writes. "But his latter-day career is proof that if nothing else, evolving with the times looks a lot more dignified than trying to be the exact same person you were in 2002."
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